Banes of Chaos
This article is about incarnations of the corrupt principles of Chaos. For other uses, see Bane (disambiguation).
The Banes of Chaos are a triad of spiritual forms taken by the Chaos Serpent when disunified, each of great power and manifesting from one of the three Forces of Chaos. While not innately evil, these Banes become perverse corruptions of themselves when not balanced by their counterparts in Order,[1][2] and given rampant freedom, are capable of wreaking the destructive havoc observed throughout their appearance in Ultima VII Part Two.
History[edit]
Order forces brought the Banes of Chaos into being by splintering the Chaos Serpent at the height of the Imbalance War, ensnaring them in specialized prisons housed in the counterposing Temples of Logic, Ethicality, and Discipline before departing Serpent Isle. The Banes remained therein for centuries, through the New Sosarian epoch, until Batlin's interference brought about their escape in the events shortly preceding the Avatar's arrival in the realm.
The Bane of Insanity[edit]
The Bane of Insanity embodies an inability to overcome emotional impulses with rational thought, and was imprisoned in the Temple of Logic. It was the last Bane to be trapped by Batlin, having eluded capture until well after the Avatar's appearance on Serpent Isle. After having been released from its imprisonment the daemon's soul moved far south to Monitor, where it took hold of the teenage Cantra soon after the Avatar's arrival in the city. Beseeched by the young girl's distraught mother, Harnna, the hero was eventually able to track Cantra to Shamino's long-abandoned castle, where she had been cornered by Batlin. Before the Avatar could intervene, however, the sage murdered the girl and captured the Bane occupying her, before departing the grisly scene for the Shrine of Order.
When Batlin fell to the Banes' subsequent escape, Insanity twisted Iolo to become Mad Iolo and descended upon Fawn, where he derided its citizens' idealistic worship of beauty. Laughing as he did so, the maniacal daemon's soul saw fit to besmirch the city with plague, famine, and vermin, while massacring nearly all inhabitants within.[3][4] Spared from such a fate, however, were the hitherto estranged, disfigured Ruggs, and Lady Yelinda, whom Mad Iolo allowed to live but flayed by means of a sorcerous curse, taunting her that only the Avatar could "prove whether Beauty was skin deep."[5] Leaving Fawn defiled, the Bane of Insanity retreated to the Castle of the White Dragon to reunite with his Chaotic brethren.
The Bane of Anarchy[edit]
The Bane of Anarchy embodies a lack of standards of conduct or structured kind of society, and was imprisoned inside the Temple of Ethicality. Anarchy was captured second by Batlin's men, having possessed an unspecified entity who took refuge deep in the ancient city of Skullcrusher.[6]
When Batlin was later overpowered and killed by the Banes during his attempt to pass the Wall of Lights, Shamino was quickly possessed by the malevolent entity and became the ruthless Shamino the Anarch. Preying upon the city of Moonshade, this glowing being usurped the position of MageLord and abolished all established law, carrying out arbitrary executions and leaving adepts to turn against each other in the ensuing disorder.[7] Having slaughtered all but a handful of remaining survivors of the resulting chaos and having turned the Magister Fedabiblio to stone, Shamino the Anarch then found refuge with his two counterparts in the Castle of the White Dragon.
The Bane of Wantonness[edit]
The Bane of Wantonness embodies action without self-restraint, and was imprisoned in the Temple of Discipline. After the initial release from its temple confines, the Bane first seized Iolo's wayfaring wife, Gwenno, and drove her to ambush an encampment of the trapper Hazard's accomplices in the frozen north, swiftly dispatching most of them before those remaining were finally able to overcome her.[8][9] Soon after, Wantonness was the first Bane to be captured by Batlin, after his entourage slew a "beast of ice" in the tundras of the frozen north.[6]
When Batlin was later felled by the Banes' further escape, Dupre's form was commandeered and transformed into the reptilian Wantonness Bane. First turning to Monitor, he opened the city gates to its goblin scourge, enabling them to enter freely and butcher the populace. Wantonness then set upon the Inn of the Sleeping Bull and massacred all remaining occupants, before taking up residence in the Castle of the White Dragon with his two daemonic accomplices.
Defeat and reunification[edit]
The Banes' brief but devastating rampage was quashed when the Avatar infiltrated the Castle of the White Dragon and struck down their vessels with the Black Sword, temporarily trapping the chaotic beings within the blade's vacant Ether Gem before a final transfer into three Soul Prisms. The hero then journeyed to the Shrine of Chaos deep within Skullcrusher to complete the reunification of the Chaos Serpent, joining the captive Banes with the balanced soul of self-immolated Dupre, and delivering the restored deity to the Ethereal Void through the opened Wall of Lights.
Trivia[edit]
- The incantation the Avatar uses to reunify the Banes into the Chaos Serpent is, “In pri kli ort ailem, Priin ort inten mani,” which approximately translates to, “Create unity (of) three things, unify magic maintain life.”
- It may be interesting to note that when the Avatar undergoes the Test of Purity in Furnace, each trial undertaken is presented by the companion who will come to be possessed by the Bane embodying the antithesis of the virtue upon which the Avatar is being tested. Shamino, who is eventually possessed by Anarchy, attempts to convince the hero to commit unethical acts of rape; Iolo, who is eventually possessed by Insanity, tries to get the hero to abandon Logic through a series of emotional appeals; and Dupre, who is eventually possessed by Wantoness, encourages the Avatar to become undisciplined enough to abandon the task.
- The Banes' wholesale massacre of Serpent Isle's population is one of many design cutbacks enacted in order to meet the game's production deadline. Prior to this truncation, the three Banes were to have remained in each city, imposing twisted regimes of cruel and unusual punishment upon their new subjects, before being defeated by the Avatar. Several latent portions of this discarded plot remain in the final release's USECODE file.
- Though it's not explicitly stated, in theory the Banes do have Order counterparts. Those should be Prejudice, Apathy and Ruthlessness. They did not appear because the Order Serpent stayed whole, but these traits are visible with its followers in Serpent's Fang. Also more noticeably in the three cities of the new settlers because each represent one of the anti-forces of Order.
- There are three unused portraits for the Black Sword (seen below) contained in the game's FACES.VGA file, indicating that it may have originally been intended for conversations with the Banes to take place during their capture in the Ether Gem.
- While not necessary to complete the game, the Banes may be tracked using the Hound of Doskar and items personal to them: for Dupre, his magic shield, and for Iolo, his lute. Beatrix's book of love sonnets might have been used for Shamino but it never worked in the original game.
Portrait 1
Portrait 2
Portrait 3
References[edit]
- ↑ Ssithnos. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "Chaos Serpent".
- ↑ Chaos Hierophant. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "damnation, Forces of Chaos".
- ↑ Ruggs. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "Iolo".
- ↑ Lady Yelinda. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "people".
- ↑ Lady Yelinda. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Anonymous. Diary (Ultima VII Part Two – in-game).
- ↑ Fedabiblio. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "Shamino the Anarch, anything".
- ↑ Fitch. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "What happened?".
- ↑ Yenani. Ultima VII Part Two usecode. Ultima VII Part Two. "Gwenno".